The Internet has been a transformative presence in most of our lives. I know it has been to my wife and I and our friends and family. My kids have grown up not knowing a world where a constant digital connection to all human knowledge and to many billions of the planet's people is not a given. But for all its good, and I fall very firmly on the good side, the Internet has a very dark side too.

Instant access to an astoundingly vast quantitiy of information and discourse on every conceivable topic is an amazing resource when pulled on demand to support our important pursuits. When it supports depth of thought and action, it's a force multiplier like no other the world has known.

Instant exposure to an astoundingly vast quantitiy of information and discourse on every conceivable topic is a crippling drain on us, and derails our important pursuits when it is pushed at us in a never ending torrent of emails, tweets, Facebook updates, SMS's, instant messages, Skypes and mobile alerts. The allure of the fresh and new is almost irresistible and all possibility of depth to thought and action is drained in a never ending sea of distraction.

Balancing mindful access and mindess exposure will be one of the toughest challenges of the 21st century. As technology professionals, we've let the rest of the world down. We must begin to create the solutions to this problem rather than just continue to make the it worse.